Nobody’s responsibility

With further rain on Saturday 2^nd September there is a possibility that Karachi will remain inundated for days to come. The precipitation that produced chaos on Thursday 31^st August was not particularly heavy nor was it unexpected as a cursory glance at any of the weather-predictive websites clearly shows. No matter that there were several days warning of rain, Karachi was in large part beneath the waters within a couple of hours and remains so in certain areas.

The scenes that swiftly emerged were almost apocalyptic — cars floating or semi-submerged, vast amounts of rubbish, dead animals, pedestrians and motorists struggling against the tide and underpasses impassable. The city administration swiftly gave up the ghost saying that the situation was beyond control and calling on the military for assistance. About 40 have died in rain-related incidents, mostly electrocution and more deaths may be expected.

This is not the first time, neither is it going to be the last that the city drowns in its own filth. There is guilt to be shared up and down the line. At the bottom are the irresponsible residents that cast their waste hither and thither with not a care in the world, and at the top end the local government and municipal authorities consistently fail to adequately discharge their duties in respect of waste management and maintenance of nullahs and other drains. As the waters rise so does the chorus of complaints and finger pointing — everybody else’s fault and none of my own.

We can say with absolute confidence that none of this is going to change in the foreseeable future. A perfect storm of incompetence and irresponsibility everywhere in the city is going to ensure that identical — and worse — events are going to happen into the far future. With the world warming up by the year monsoons are going to increase in severity. And nobody will ever be responsible.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 2^nd, 2017.

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